MechWarrior Online sales pass $5 million before launch

Though MechWarrior Online will be free-to-play when it launches, players have already coughed up more than $5 million to play the beta version through its Founder's Program. Things are looking good for the stompy robot sim, then, and publisher Infinite Game Publishing is pretty excited about its slate of "premium" free-to-play games.

Though MechWarrior Online will be free-to-play when it launches, players have already coughed up more than $5 million to play the beta version through its Founder's Program. Things are looking good for the stompy robot sim, then, and publisher Infinite Game Publishing is pretty excited about its slate of "premium" free-to-play games.

The MechWarrior Online Founder's Program launched in July then closed earlier this month, offering early access to the game along with in-game currency, premium membership, and exclusive mechs. Players could buy into $30, $60 or $120 tiers, each bringing fancier perks. $5 million represents an awful lot of people keen to stomp around exploding robo-faces.

"The success of the Founder's Program reinforces IGP's vision to help independent developers build exceptional games with the right economic model for the global marketplace," IGP CEO Nick Fostersaid in today's announcement. "We are in a unique position to be able to deliver a pipeline of high quality, innovative content for online game players."

For many years, free-to-play games were seen as a bit shoddy and exploitative, but F2P titles like World of Tanks, League of Legends, PlanetSide 2, Dota 2, and, of course, MechWarrior Online are really changing that. Developers and publishers are now realising they can put out top-quality free-to-play games without nasty 'pay to win' microtransactions, which is lovely.

Though MechWarrior Online will be free-to-play when it launches, players have already coughed up more than $5 million to play the beta version through its Founder's Program. Things are looking good for the stompy robot sim, then, and publisher Infinite Game Publishing is pretty excited about its slate of "premium" free-to-play games.

So I just got into this, and I'm stuck on starter mechs for right now. I've never really played a mechwarrior game before so I'm totally unfamiliar with the weapons and stuff (I'm a Starseige fan myself) so I feel pretty lost when it comes to what I should buy once I have some cash saved up.

I want something med/heavy for long range artillery/sniping and I already found out I'm not a fan of lasers. Are there any sort of long range hard hitting projectile weapons? I want the mechwarrior equivalent of mounting two MFAC cannons on the hover tank in Starseige. I hear something about gauss guns being the shit at the moment?

Gauss rifles are great at range, but heavy. You can fit one in a medium mech, but not comfortably. You really need a heavy or assault to field a gauss well.

Autocannons are also good at range and they're light enough to fit in a medium. As a rule, the smaller the round, the farther it goes. Try loading some AC2s or a UAC5 in the right arm of a Centurion or step up to a Dragon.

I didn't say it couldn't be done, and of course a gauss can do damage once it's on the field, but I still think it's better used in a heavy. How many rounds do you take into the match and what other weapons are equipped?

My favorite build is 4x medium lasers with 14 heat sinks and an XL Engine 270 along with maxing out my armor at 224.

You give up a bit of firepower, yes, but the speed increase (99.5 kph to 124.9 kph) more than makes up for it. It's good for getting out of the gate early to see where the majority of the heavy stuff is going, or getting back to your own base if there is a fast mech trying to cap early.

Starting out, running an XL engine will be tough to purchase, but sticking with the regular engine works well too. That's just what I do. It works especially well on city maps.

You can buy your way into each beta, if you really want in. Just have to really decide if its worth the money or not. MWO has been well worth it so far, even though it's had some pretty bad issues along the way. But I'm a sucker for mech games, so hey.

Yeah, it's just kind of a shitty business model imho. "Pay for something that will be free later! And that some other people already got for free!" I guess it's better than what they've been doing with MMOs recently, but it feels like it defeats a large amount of the purpose of free to play model.

to be fair they do give buy-in people some extra stuff, usually, but still.

and the fact that I'd personally have to go around begging for keys probably makes it evident that I'm probably the kind of person they don't want to be giving free keys to.

pretty much the shackhype will be over and no one playing when I finally get it. It's like when I wait for the Steam sale only it feels worse cause I am getting it as soon as it is out and it's already too late

If you want to support them then sure. But you absolutely don't need to spend money to get a mech. You just have to grind out 30-40 battles in trial mechs (which will let you get the hang of the game and the basic feel of a few different mechs) then you can buy a light mech, or grind an additional 20-30 and get a medium or heavy

I was nervous about buying the $120 package before even playing the game... no regrets what so ever. Its fun to hop into for a few rounds solo or in a group. I just wish they would launch this into "Open Beta" so I could start working on the skill trees and whatten.